The Life Section thrives when reviewing good music. It’s our bread and butter. There’s really nothing better than throwing some headphones on and diving into a great song or album. But, in an increasingly stale or cluttered music market — depending on how you look at it — what are the best options to get some tunes? In this roundtable, Life writers make a case for solid options to find good music. Let’s tune in!
Bonnibel Lilith Rampertab, Campus Correspondent (she/her/hers):
Bandcamp: In the digital age of experiencing music, streaming services make the art form lucrative and incredibly consumerism-fueled by implementing “freemium” models where those who pay for the service get higher quality streams and uninterrupted listening, but those who don’t pay (like me) have to put up with ads.
Bandcamp does away with ads and, instead, allows artists to have more control over how their art is experienced since they don’t have to worry so much about how stream-able or marketable it is. Take the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, for example. The infamous post-rock group, especially in online music circles, put their formerly lost project “all lights fucked on the hairy amp drooling” only on Bandcamp for anyone to experience.
If you like what you hear, you can buy the project (or the entire discography) for a set price or a price that you deem suitable depending on the artist. Some releases even allow you to download the music in a .zip file for free. Plus, the recommendations on Bandcamp are well-curated and are great for people who want to support underrated artists. There is a better sense of human intimacy with engaging with the art, both as the artist and as the listener, with Bandcamp as compared to other more capitalist streaming services.
While it isn’t conventional or convenient by any means, I will always appreciate what Bandcamp has done for music artists, their circles and their fans, giving them more power and accessibility in expression.
James Fitzpatrick, Associate Life Editor (he/him/his):
I use Spotify, but only out of tradition at this point. Apple Music offers a near-identical service that’s more compatible with iPhones than Spotify, yet these multi-billion-dollar companies can’t properly compensate their artists, the people who make their services thrive. They have constantly faced controversies that have compelled legends such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to take their own music off Spotify, though my main problem with it is separate from that.
The user interface is continuously changing on mobile and desktop versions of the application to mask the slow performance and many recurring problems that have plagued the app for years.
Granted, I have playlists that reach the maximum of 10,000 songs, hence why I tend to stick with Spotify (out of laziness), but the continual crashes and general laziness when working with playlists doesn’t depend on the quality of your computer and has been steady since I started using the app six years ago.
Their online forum where users can suggest changes to be implemented by the developers with enough community recognition has worked in the past, but it seems like the most useful ideas are… ignored. At this point, it’s not surprising, so I’ve said it once and I’ll repeat it here: To truly support artists, use Bandcamp.
Dan Stark, Campus Correspondent (he/him/his):
This is a very niche response, but I’m going to go with ReListen. ReListen is a free — and legal — app that features live recordings of 208 artists, giving users thousands of concerts to choose from. The app is a haven for jam band fans, as these groups make up most of the artists here. Grateful Dead and Phish highlight the selections, with recordings available from every show, many of which are directly from the soundboard.
Deadheads, like myself, especially love the app since there are also recordings by Dead and Company, Furthur, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and other Dead-related projects. But there are also a ton of recordings available by other top jam bands like Tedeschi Trucks Band and Drive-By Truckers, in addition to lesser-known groups like Dopapod and Perpetual Groove.
If you’re not into jam bands, this is a great place to get into the genre. But there are also plenty of other non-jam bands in here, including John Mayer, The Mountain Goats, Yes and 311. ReListen gives users a cornucopia of music that they can’t find on other platforms and is a great place to explore new artists.
Ben Lassy, Life Editor (he/him/his):
I may sound a bit out of date here, but YouTube — not YouTube Music, just the regular video-platform — is the best way to stream music. Although this may be a shocker to many, I have my reasons, so hear me out.
The main caveat to YouTube serving as a music platform is that it incessantly attempts to shoehorn you into downloading YouTube Music. That’s a big drawback; but, if you’re like me and like obscure or far-out 1960s and ‘70s music, then YouTube is, without a doubt, the way to go.
It’s on YouTube that I found “Dae Lims” (rumored to be a flip of “smile ad” — meaning “Smile” after death), a channel that produces AI-revamped mixes of niche tracks by the Beatles and Beach Boys. On that channel, with the approval of Van Dyke Parks (Brian Wilson’s co-writer for many brilliant songs by the Beach Boys), Dae Lims uploaded “Dae Lims Presents SMiLE AI.”
For those unfamiliar with “SmiLE,” it was to be the Beach Boys’ successor to “Pet Sounds,” regarded by many to be the best album of all time. “SMiLE” was never finished, but with YouTube, AI and some studio-brilliance, it has been resurrected by fans.
Other YouTube gems include the Beatles’ performance at the 1964 New Musical Express concert in the United Kingdom. This performance captures the group in their prime with a stellar set. The Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five and other ‘60s groups also have live recordings which couldn’t be found for free elsewhere.
YouTube has it all, especially if you’re into older music; but at the end of the day, it’s all about your preferences. So, listen whichever way you choose, there’s no wrong way to rock on.